Re Al Qaeda Normally OT but in light of fact this is being used as a partial explanation for oil weakness and dollar strenght today I will comment.
Far from headless they are expanding to palestine, sinai, stepping up conflict in Somalia, very effective in Iraq, also very successful offensives in Afghhanistan this spring, objective is to attack in as many places as possible to strech US thin, also active in Phillipines, Balkans, Pakistan.
The loss of Zarqawi is overblown as many below to fill his place. http://debka.com/
It does not change the picture in Iraq. i also agree that this is not an important driver of the market here and what is important here is for someone such as Bernanke to calm the markets. He has made a mess of it.
As for the terrorist deal in Canada, not related. No link to Al Qaeda, also sounds like a group of amateurs involved in alot of tough talk and enticed to make their fertilizer purchase. Storming the parliament and beheading the Prime Minister, as if.
The only thing that will cure high priced oil is hign priced oil, by slowing economy and decreasing usage.
What I am most impressed by is the world wide nature of the crash and the the increasing speed of the fall. Very destabilizing. One would have to wonder if world governments should forget about increasing interest rates in such an environment.
For those that Follow Bird Flu I include this link. I sometimes wonder how much this is affecting the markets and have noticed references to this in Asian business news lately. A real economic threat. The expanding clusters of 'inefficient' human to human infection in Indonesia is a real concern, note US moving of Tamiflu to unspecified Indonesian location.
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